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St
Andrew, Thursford

On a bright day in early May, there can be
few lovelier sights than St Andrew sitting in its little
hollow in the fields. There isn't really a Thursford
village - the placename is famous for the collection of
pipe organs a mile or so away - and you have to go down
narrow, hilly lanes to find the drive to the Hall, and St
Andrew.

Even from
a distance, you can see that the Victorians were busy
here. In fact, apart from the tower and the north
doorway, it is an almost complete early 1860s rebuilding
from the ground up. The three light Early English windows
at the east end are imposing, to say the least, and were
done to the taste of the Chadd family of Thurston Hall -
the southerly of the two windows is in the wall of their
family chapel. The Chadds paid for the rebuilding, by W
Lightly. Their Hall sits about forty metres to the south
of St Andrew, and they were paying for what they got - a
view. Although the south side of the church is hidden
from the road and the drive, it is the more elaborate,
with some thoroughly urban-looking gargoyles, who might
be on country retreat from Notre-Dame in Paris.

In
general, the inside does not live up to the outside. It
is a dull, gloomy interior, with some fairly mean
furnishings. The south transept, the Chadd family chapel,
is most curious, being on two levels. The upper floor is
their family pew, and below this is the Chadd mausoleum.

There is
one thing that saves the interior from total mediocrity.
This is the Victorian glass. That in the east window is
by an artist called Albert Moore, who I had not
previously heard of, and it was a commission from Powell
and sons. Pevsner dates it as 1862. He's also very fond
of it, describing it as one of the most beautiful of its
time in England, or indeed Europe. I actually prefer the
work in the north and south chancel aisles, also by
Powell and son, this time the work of the artist Harry
Wooldridge. If asked to guess, I would have placed its
monumental style in the 1920s, but apparently it is from
the 1870s. I particularly liked Mary of the Annunciation
and St Cecilia.

A poignant
memorial from the Second World War includes a photograph
of the airman commemorated.